AMAZINGLY, there have been three biographries about Emil Zatopek this year. Pat Butcher’s version might be the bronze medallist with regards the speed and timing of publishing, but it is definitely a gold medal contender when it comes to the quality of the book itself.
Rick Broadbent’s Endurance and Richard Askwith’s TodayWe Die a Little beat Butcher’s biography in the race to the bookstands earlier this year, but Quicksilver – the mecurial Emil Zatopek is a superbly well-researched and beautifully-written account of an athletics legend who won four Olympic titles, three European golds and broke 18 world records.
It helps considerably that Butcher actually met Zatopek, firstly at the 1972 Olympics and later during interviews before the great runner’s death in November 2000.
More recently, Butcher travelled to Prague and the Czech Republic to track down friends, former training partners and relatives of the athlete in an attempt to shed truth on mythical sessions such as 100x400m, plus Zatopek’s position as an opponent of the Russian invasion of his country.